Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft are helping Google fight an order to hand over foreign emails

Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Cisco have filed an amicus brief in support of Google,
after a Pennsylvania court ruled that the company had to hand
over emails stored overseas in response to an FBI warrant.

An amicus brief is filed by people or companies who have an
interest in the case, but aren't directly involved. In this case,
it's in Silicon Valley's interest to keep US law enforcement from
accessing customer data stored outside the US.

It isn't clear what data Google might have to hand over and, last
month, the company said it would fight to the order.

In the brief, the companies argue: "When a warrant seeks email
content from a foreign data center, that invasion of privacy
occurs outside the United States — in the place where the
customers’ private communications are stored, and where they are
accessed, and copied for the benefit of law enforcement, without
the customer’s consent."

They claim that handing over foreign data "invites" other
countries to demand emails from US citizens, stored on US soil,
in the same way.

They wrote: "Our sister nations clearly view US warrants
directing service providers to access, copy, and transmit to the
United States data stored on servers located within their
territory as an extraterritorial act on the part of the US
government."

Their argument hinges on the court's interpretation of the US
Stored Communications Act (SCA), and whether it applies to data
stored outside the US. According to the companies, it's for
Congress rather than the court to decide whether the SCA applies
overseas.

They also referenced a similar case won by Microsoft in January. The company refused
to hand over emails belonging to the non-US citizen stored on
Irish servers, and the US government lost an appeal to have the
case reheard.

According to The Register,
Google said last month it would appeal the Pennsylvania
court's decision. A spokesman said: "The magistrate in this case
departed from precedent, and we plan to appeal the decision. We
will continue to push back on over-broad warrants."